“Good Neighbors,” column by Dave Newhouse
ON March 3, I was the guest speaker at the opening of the Livermore Little League season. Here is my speech:

First of all, I have a confession to make. I was your age when Little League baseball came West in 1950. A buddy came by to get me to go try out, but I didn’t know what Little League was and I missed out on a wonderful opportunity.

Don’t you miss out on this wonderful opportunity. There will be rules to live by, but the best rules of Little League have to do with sportsmanship. And the first rule is not to make anyone look bad.

Don’t follow the examples you see on television, where one athlete will embarrass another athlete by showing him up, trying to make him look like a fool. Don’t let that be you. When someone makes a mistake, try to pick up his or her spirits, just as you would want someone to pick up your spirits when you make a mistake.

Mistakes happen. Nobody is perfect, not even major leaguers. By offering encouraging words to others, you’re showing respect for them. But you’re also respecting the game of baseball, and yourself. Don’t you want others to say you are a good teammate? Because when you’re through playing baseball, that’s all that really matters.

Home runs may win you a starting position, and perhaps a college scholarship and maybe even a professional contract. But as sportswriter Grantland Rice once wrote, “When the Great Scorekeeper comes to write against your name, he asks not whether you won or lost, but how you played the game.”

So play the game fair, and cleanly, and always to the best of your ability, and you will have no regrets, believe me.

Not everybody here will have a long baseball career, but you’ve made the team. That shows you’ve succeeded, and you have ability others have recognized and want on their team. That should tell you you have talent, and you can succeed in something bigger than even baseball: The game of life.

Use this accomplishment as inspiration that you can make it successfully in whatever you choose to do as you get older. Not everyone can be first-string now, but you will be first-string someday in the career of your choice. In the meantime, make sure Little League is a fun time in your life. It’s a game, not a job, so enjoy these games, these years, before you one day become parents of Little Leaguers yourselves.

And you parents here today, and you coaches, make sure these ballplayers have fun. Childhood passes by quickly; you were children not so long ago yourselves. Don’t be too hard on these children, to the point of verbal abuse. None of us can do more than our very best. You can’t ask them to do more if they are trying their hardest.

These players should model themselves correctly, and you should, too. Sportsmanship comes from the stands as well. Remember, coaches pick the best players to play, and sometimes they pick their own children. We’re only human.

And so are umpires human. I used to umpire youth baseball, including Little League. It was hard squeezing behind catchers who came up to my waist. So give the umpires a break. They’re doing the best they can.

No rug-rat rage, OK?

In closing, I ask that all of you — players, coaches, parents, umpires — do two important things.

– No. 1, treat the game well, better than some big leaguers have treated it by cheating to gain an unfair advantage. Remember, baseball is our oldest game, going back to 1839, the year I was born. I played ball with Abraham Lincoln. He was a good fielder, but couldn’t hit. But he became some president, didn’t he?

Excuse the cheap humor. Love the game that has made you all feel so proud wearing a baseball uniform for the first time. There is no better feeling.

– Now for point No. 2. Make sure nobody goes away from the ballpark mad. The sun is out, the grass is green, it’s baseball. Only one team can leave the field a winner, and it’s the team that did the most to win that day. But there’s always the next day, the next game, and that will be your chance to win.

So players, parents and coaches, don’t get mad after a loss. Nobody wins every game. That’s baseball. That’s sports. That’s life.

Wow! The first day of a baseball season. What’s better?

Play ball.

Dave Newhouse’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Sunday usually in the Metro section. Know any Good Neighbors? Phone 208-6466 or e-mail dnewhouse@angnewspapers.com.